How I conquered my stutter

[Valtiel]

I didn't stutter as a kid growing up, my older step brother did.

He stuttered, horribly and I was under his care because he was my older brother. I was with him all the time, some people say I inherited the stutter from him as if it were a curse.

He grew up, had a lot of friends (while stuttering) and as he interacted with them, quite often he learned to overcome it but there were of course blocks in his speech every now and then. But today, I can pretty much say he no longer stutters at all anymore.

When I started to stutter, we got speech pathologists, I kept stuttering up until when I was 18 and mom had to spend money for another pathologist to "cure" me while my brother was doing just fine with his speech.

Class presentations, kids ridiculed me but the more presentations I did I got used to it and spoke articulately without a single block.

So then I realized that I cared far too much about reactions, and the other kids. Why should I care? I told my pathologist that and she agreed, so I cared less. But I still had blocks in my speech so my brother told me to watch speeches by former President Bill Clinton and how he stretched and almost exaggerated his words.

I learned from him and with that, I conquered everything, days where I couldn't even say my own name "David" because it starts with a dry letter, it was easy now because I stretched and exagerrated "Daavid"

The only problems I have is saying filler words, "Um or Uh" but even presidents do that, especially Obama and I could say he's worse at it than me and I'm not really that concerned.

Live your life, screw what other people think and relax when speaking. You can practice by interacting with others, and you'll get used to it like me and my brother did.

I'm 19, my brother is 26.

[Violet]

nice to hear that you and your brother made it through :)

although you can't "catch" a stutter.

and how old were you when you began stuttering? I reckon that it must be easier for people to be 'cured' from stuttering when they haven't stuttered their whole life.

[peebee]

Thanks for the post! I have a question for you... when your speech started to improve dramatically, did you start paying more attention to people and being more alert instead of always thinking about if im sounding like an idiot?

[Valtiel]

nice to hear that you and your brother made it through :)

although you can't "catch" a stutter.

and how old were you when you began stuttering? I reckon that it must be easier for people to be 'cured' from stuttering when they haven't stuttered their whole life.

Since I was 10 years old. Verbal interaction with others, helped me a lot. My personality is just that I hate staying quiet so I would say hi to everyone I see on the street, when I was paying for pathology sessions, it was not recommended by the pathologist and I never told her I was doing it. But it's something I figured would work.

I thought I "caught" it, my step brother had it but some how I get it? What are the odds?:p

I was so depressed back then, I thought I sounded stupid half the time. Because my problem was not stuttering over words but I avoid a stutter so I sounded even worse. I say filler words "um or uh" until the block went away. Back then, I couldn't look an individual in an eye, but during my paid sessions I find myself staring into a person's eyes literally without blinking. I thought it showed confidence, as if I'm saying. "I can speak as well as you do," and I can prove it. I found myself staying alert, and paying more attention to others, you talk to every individual you see around you, you end up making a lot of friends. And all I wanted to do was improve my speech.;)

Sorry if I didn't clarify, I said it's better (for me) to careless about the stuttering and just talk to people. But don't lose interest in people in general, (that could lead you into more issues you don't want).